Unbound
by Tea in the Summer
Summary: That's the thing. The moment that she was bound, she will always take two step backwards in every step forward. Always tied to the ground, never reaching the joy of the skies. She tried, but she had always fell back two times harder.
1. Foundation I

_Author's Note: HA! Another fanfic! Curse you plot bunny and sad feels in the heart. Want to read more of my excuses? Go directly to the end._

* * *

It's a movement of one step forward and two steps backward, where you try to launch yourself into the sky and take flight, but end up getting dragged onto the ground, pulled even deeper down by the chains of the shadows. This is what we can describe of the broken mind of a young lady who only recently stepped into adulthood. Page after page, her mind wandered about, ignoring her flaws of indecisiveness or fickle mind. You'd think she'll learn to follow her heart, but, her heart had already tricked her much too many.

When there were no edges left to flip, her mind stopped wandering and it brought her to the songs of reality—the resounding horns, the irritating murmurs, the clinking glasses and the vibrating table. It was time for her other senses to work: the aroma of perfectly brewed coffee, the blinding light from the windows, the cool atmosphere, the receding sweetness in her throat...

And—oh, she was out of frappe.

And crap, he was calling her again.

Delicately tracing the caller's name, she remembered the times of anxiety and desperation and then, she remembered that she was tired. She was supposed to be tired, trying to be tired, but, the tiny glimmer on her right hand says otherwise.

"Hello."

"Sakura! I've been calling you a million times already! Where the hell are you?"

"I left a memo on your work desk at the unit."

"You left that memo five fucking hours ago! Do you even know what time it is?"

"Four."

"Don't play dumb with me! Just—Okay, fine. Will you just come to the meeting spot? It's an important night tonight."

"Okay."

"God, if you don't come here anytime sooner..."

"You're awfully talkative today."

"Did you say something?"

"No, nothing. Nothing at all, Sasuke-kun."

"Alright, see you."

So much for a conversation. It even made the glimmer grow dim and of less worth, not that it shone brightly at her pair of emerald gems in the first place. If only it could unwind and throw itself away, some of the weight might have lifted, but, it wouldn't. It's impossible.

She hoped, but, as far as time was concerned, she knew that she could only hope a little. She could never trust the time. It never stood still for her. No matter how she wishes it to be.

Tick-tock says the clock; she narrated in her head, as it mocked her mind.

"I'm leaving," says the pink-haired lady; she talked to the red book out loud, as it mocked her hope.

"Words will always be just words until the end," whispers the pink-haired lady; she faced the ticking time, as it mocked her trust.

* * *

Merry-making that was the flowers were bouncing about. Dancing that were the branches were getting cluttered about. The gathering of the young and the old in the time of sharing knowledge and wisdom, here it comes. Yes! It is the time of spring.

It was the start of a new year, a new term in a nearby Junior High. To outsiders, everything seems to be new for a fresh batch of freshmen, but to the involved, it was meeting of old faces for another year. The school seems to be a well-known and established escalator private school for an average neighborhood, which was a _bit_ odd for a new face to appear. Stressing the bit part over there.

The girls never minded the new face. In contrast to the reactions of their opposite gender, who grumbled out of dismay of the new person's appearance, they were ecstatic, so much glee that they scream in unison on top of their lungs every time the newbie did something cool. With the swoons and gossips, everyone knew who the new kid was—a handsome _(stuck-up)_ , young lad with unique and beautiful hair _(with a chicken's ass for a hair)_ who was part of one of the most prestigious and influential families in the country. Take a guess on who the new kid was.

"Uchiha Sasuke!" Well, that was fast.

It imprinted so much on the blond-haired kid's mind on how everyone was praising the new kid, that even if he was one of the deadlast, he's able to remember the new kid's name. It must've made his blood boil enough to give him strength to be able to even tug his collar tightly for a much tinier kid than the arisocratic Uchiha, " _You!_ "

"You are _not_ cool, at all -ttebayo! Sakura-chan was wrong!"

The black-haired newbie didn't really get what was going on with the guy but, he shrugged both his shoulders as soon as the blond ran away after making a statement, dropping a picture along the way. Needless to say, he picked it up after noticing it.

He wasn't really interested at looking at it. Maybe he could just turn it in to the lost and found, that loud blond should be looking for it, but, the moment he had thought of him, he scowled and immediately decided against it, keeping it instead for being so rude. Why was he carrying a picture anyway? Noting its importance, his curiosity bit him hard.

Taking it out from his pocket, it was a picture of the blond he met and a pink-haired girl, having a picnic with streamers all around. One could easily tell that there was a celebration of some sort. If anyone would try to dig deeper, there were evidences of icing on the side of the blond's mouth with its source already halfway eaten and, on that source, hints on what the celebration is all about. But, that's besides the point.

Since a kid was still a kid, his focus was on the two children on the picture, it didn't matter what the celebration was about. Now that he thought of it, there _was_ a pink-haired girl in the classroom and in confirmation, he tried turning the picture to look at the back. It was dated the 28th of March with two neatly written names: Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura.

"Ah, that annoying kid was..."

As the curtain closes, the trail of conclusion lead to a mark of mischief on the little Uchiha's face.

* * *

 _Author's Note: I have no excuse no more. I apologize for not updating at all the others, not rewriting things that should've been revised AND not finishing the request most importantly on the other Naruto fanfiction, because, I'm a bad author like that. Ha. Ha._

 _On another note, here's another fanfiction that I probably won't continue for a long time again, because, this thing only came out of nowhere. It's complete in my head, but, the words I can interpret it into is very limited because, brain power shortage plus a bunch of more excuses._

 _Anyways, I leave you guys with this and you guys can make up on assumptions on what this story is going on about. Feel free to share it with me through review or pm, whenever you want._


	2. Foundation II

_Disclaimer & Author's Note: I forgot to do this but, I don't own any of these fictional characters from the anime, Naruto and, I never will be. In which, I should've mentioned this disclaimer more, because, it's more proper but, screw it. Not editing the old ones just for this disclaimer addition._

* * *

In the rules of counting, not considering the number 0, which is always counted as first in computer terms, the number 1 is always the first one to be called. The number 1, just like any number, was something insignificant if not given any context. However, somehow in this story, it became such a big deal, that out of all the numbers, it became the most significant, something worth noting for.

And that is because, it was given an important role, a context—

 _To be number one._

 _To be the first one._

 _To be the one that is acknowledged the most._

* * *

At the beginning, there was only a tiny little bud, not something out of the ordinary. It is a bud that goes with the flow of the wind under a good ray of sunshine. Such a simple concept, it would seem, waiting to grow out and maybe finally show its beauty to the world. But, no matter how good as that may sound, a time will come that the stability the bud cherishes will reduce to something stale, because, time will bring change, bringing storms for the little bud to overcome.

And one of the hurdles of the storm is the loud thunderclap that a girl had wondered if anybody could hear. But, the more the storm crashes, the more that it became clear that only the girl could hear, which she founds odd as she realizes that the loud thunderclaps came from her own chest. Was she sick?

Clutching a bit of her upper clothing around the chest area, her habit of always looking down on the floor was cut off as she raised her head slowly, trailing a pair of feet upwards to a pair of onyx-colored orbs, that was staring right through her.

'What is he doing here?' she wondered as she placed the clutching hand back down, only to clutch both hands on the bottom side of the messy art apron she was wearing over her clothes.

Compared to the messy little girl, anyone could see the clean features of the young boy at the other end of the hallway, who, on the other hand, had both hands on his pockets. He was slowly approaching. His stare was not moving away from her nervous ones.

And she was moments away from submitting to her nerves. She tried and tried to continue at their small staring contest, but she crumbled.

She was looking down again and blushing a little in both embarrassment and shyness at her state; she was in an inner turmoil.

"Sakura."

Ah, there it was. It was the awaited lightning that was supposed to happen right before the thunderclaps and, it came crashing through the course of her skin. Nobody other than her blond friend had called her name so informally before and so soon. And better yet to the inner joy of the young little girl, it was the new kid who she thought as someone cool and handsome throughout the day. She was losing over her head and couldn't process what was happening, that she forgot to answer.

"Sakura."

And oh, yes. Among her female peers, she was the first ever to be called by the Uchiha and first ever to be talked to. She could only hope that she doesn't mess this up.

"U-Um, Uchi-Uchi... Uchiwa-san—Ah!"

Forget being first, he won't even talk to her ever again.

"Aa, I didn't know that our insignia was this well-known."

He won't even look at her in the anymore.

"I'll get to the point."

He might even find her as some pink-haired weirdo with a large forehead.

"I want to join the art club."

Or worse, he could even bully her like the rest of the peers like write things on her desk, throw— Wait, what?

"C-Come again?"

"Join the art club."

"Oh uh... the door is here. S-sensei is right inside, you can ask her."

"Hn."

Only then, when he disappeared into the room she directed him into did she process what just happened. With a sunny smile for the first time ever, she excitedly ran to look for her only friend in the school, ready to tell the news on what just happened.

Unknown to all, a petal slightly moved.

And unknown to her, she just motivated her loud blond friend to go towards a deeper end.

* * *

 _Author's Note: Wow, this is surprising. I updated, but, don't get your hopes too much. And oh yeah, you guys are still welcome to guess. Cheers for now._


	3. Foundation III

_Disclaimer: Never owned Naruto ever. Credits to Masashi Kishimoto._

* * *

Puberty is when a child slowly grows and develop be it physical, mental or emotional. They develop and grow through situations where they can learn from. The situations might cause their emotions to run wild, but, it is part of growth and that is understanding what is going on with themselves. Talking about emotions going haywire, love becomes a huge factor and these emotions can go spiraling towards the positive or the negative. In the previous take, we have seen a storm that lead emotions go haywire towards the positive, but, we all know it's not always going to be that way.

* * *

Jealousy is not a usual word you'd find in his vocabulary. He was the happy prankster kid that everyone knows, the most unpredictable and the most hyperactive of them all. If it was him, the closest negative thing you could get out of him was probably envy but, you can't blame him if he felt both emotions at the same time. After all, he was her first friend, the first one who got acknowledged, and the first one she showed her smile at. And just because, that new kid could all look cool and get swooned at by every female specie in the hallway, that doesn't mean that... that she would do that, too, wouldn't she?

Trudging towards the swing with a hint of discontentment on his face, the blond-haired child sat on the swing, the usual meeting place. His face held a large burden _—_ a story to tell. Usually he was up in his sunny disposition, but, as doubts filled up his mind, he lost his usual aura and could only stare at the sky in wonder if what happened yesterday wasn't some kind of dream.

* * *

 _From what he remembered, it was a normal day in school until the new kid came. The females in his class were admiring the new kid, even_ _though there wasn't anything special with the guy in his opinion, which is why he ignored them and started his day by telling Sakura another great story of_ _how he outsmarted his old man again the other day._ _He was about to open his mouth and get started when he noticed that his friend wasn't_ _listening. She was trying to take a glance at the new kid._

 _What was his name again? Uchiga, Uchiwa_ _—_ _Ah, that's right Uchiha Sasuke._

 _'Pfft. His name sounds funny. Uzumaki Naruto is a better name,' He thought and nods to himself in agreement for a moment._

 _He could understand his friend's curiosity since she might have wanted to befriend him but, the moment he saw a tiny tint of pink on her cheek that got him confused because, his_ _immediate reaction was a burning feeling in his chest and a churning feeling in his stomach._ _Did he eat something bad during breakfast? He_ _was so sure that his dad was the one that cooked this morning and not his mom. Admittedly, he wasn't the brightest kid, so, he asked the smartest_ _person he knew in class._

 _"Hey, Shikamaru!" Naruto shook the guy's shoulder who sat behind him, "Shikamaru!"_

 _Unfortunately for him, the smartest guy was also the laziest guy in class, so, he had to call him multiple times before he came to._

 _As heavy as a lazy person's pineapple head could be, he lifted his head in a bit of a struggle as he woke up from Naruto's nudges and calls. This guy called_ _Shikamaru predicted that whatever the blond was about to talk to him was something not worth waking up from his sleep._

 _Well, that was what he thought until he saw the look on Naruto's face. It was the first time that he'd seen him with a serious look on his face. Oh_ _boy, looks like the blond contracted something even more troublesome._

 _"Ah, Naruto."_

 _"E-hehe~ Sorry for waking you up Shikamaru," By the gestures of the guy, where he scratched behind his head, the other hand on his_ _stomach and a seemingly forced and nervous smile, Shikamaru internally caught himself from saying his favorite catch phrase._

 _"It's not a problem," Shikamaru sighed, "So, what's up?"_

 _With both his hands curled tightly into fists, he hurriedly explained to the genius on what happened inside his body like how he burned so hot_ _like the hot ramen he always ate, how he felt his stomach churn like how he did when he once drank an already expired milk and how_ _everything has happened was because, he saw his pink-haired friend's reaction to Uchiha Sasuke. Soon after that, he started blaming_ _Sasuke, where he started not making sense anymore._

 _Good thing he talked to the smartest guy in the class as well as the one of the calmest people in class. Before things went overboard,_ _Shikamaru slapped Naruto with the notebook he was sleeping on from his desk to stop his blaming game hype._

 _"Naruto."_

 _"Well, Shikamaru?" Judging from his response, Shikamaru felt his seriousness more. He didn't even react to the notebook slap._

 _"Naruto, calm down. What you're feeling right now is something typical of a kid undergoing puberty," He paused at the ridiculousness of his explanation,"_ _Stop feeling envious about the Uchiha's popularity and stop feeling jealous like Sakura's going to be taken away from_ _you."_

 _"What are you talking about Shikamaru? Why would I... I mean I'm way cooler and and_ _—_ _I was her first friend so why would I be envious and_ _jealous?"_

 _"You..." Shikamaru was about to expound more but, found it too troublesome anymore if the blond wasn't going to accept it, "Forget it. It's too_ _troublesome."_

 _As a result, the pineapple head dropped his head back on the desk and went back to snoring._

 _"Shikamaru!" The blond groaned, "Ugh, I shouldn't have asked you."_

 _In a slump, he continued his day staring at his dazed pink-haired friend, who was still trying to take a glance at Sasuke without the other girls_ _noticing in order to avoid the bullying from escalating, with Shikamaru's words repeating inside his head like a mantra._

 _Unknown to him, his pineapple-haired friend wasn't asleep at all the whole time. He was busy memorizing the features of the same girl the_ _blond was fussing about._

 _'Jealous and envious, huh?'_

* * *

"Naruto!" Speaking of, there she was in all her beautiful glory with her soft pastel-colored hair bouncing about as she ran towards him in her art club attire which consisted of an apron with a lot of messy colors on them that was protecting her school uniform underneath.

"Sakura-chan!" He gave the biggest smile he could muster, "You look extra bright and happy today! Anything good happened during club?"

"Did you know? Did you know?"

With such sparkle in her eyes as well as how she spoke, he could feel her excitement and couldn't help but get infected by her giddiness,"What is it, Sakura-chan?"

"It's Sasuke-kun! He... he talked to me! I'm the only girl he ever spoke to! And and he didn't think that I'm a weirdo with pink hair!" But, even the infectious giddiness couldn't last long because, the moment she spoke of the raven-haired Uchiha, the blond's smile suddenly became forced.

"Ah that's - that's great! Good for you, Sakura-chan!" He... He was cool. He bet that he was even cooler than that dark and broody guy, so, shouldn't he be looked at with those same sparkle on her eyes?

"Naruto?"

"Oh, I just remembered Sakura-chan! I can't go eat ramen with you today," Why isn't she looking at him with the same look she has with that stuck up-looking kid?

"Eh? But, we always eat ramen after school."

"I just remembered that mom had an errand for me and you know how scary she gets." No, she was looking at him that way before. But, that was then.

"Oh, um... okay. There's always tomorrow, ne?"

"Un!" And with a nod, he quickly left her with a wave and a smile.

"Hm, I wonder what's wrong with him."

Now, he wasn't the one she acknowledged the most, she admired the most. Not anymore.

 _I'm sorry, Sakura-chan._

 _Let me fix myself first._

* * *

 _Author's Notes: They are in Junior High but they're freshmen and only graduated from their school's Elementary Branch a few months ago, which is why I still call them a 'kid' or a 'child'. They're around 12 years old here, people._

 _I'm kind of following the starting age similar to the series except they're not ninjas so, they're not really 'adults'. Hmm, I'm not even sure of the concept of being genin or graduating from the academy means being an adult already even came from the actual series. Maybe, it's a fanfic agreement thing among authors here? Oh, well._


End file.
